It is not intended here to give a consecutive or elaborate history of the Bardstown bar, but only a brief notice of some of its leaders in Mr. Hardin's time, who were his colleagues and rivals. In selecting the subjects for these sketches it seems according the natural order to begin with Felix Grundy, the oldest of those to be noticed. Both he and John Rowan (next to be mentioned) afterward removed from Bardstown, but not until they had laid the lasting foundations of professional success and fame. William P. Duval, a man of rare gifts, drifted into political life, and is remembered rather as the Governor of Florida and for rare colloquial powers, than for professional labors and ability. Ben Chapeze was a strong and able man who was too much in the front rank to be omitted. Charles A. Wickliffe's career was long, active, and successful. No one ever practiced at the Bardstown bar for so long a period-almost three-score years. Included is a sketch of the erratic John Hayes, who accomplished little of what he might have done, but left behind a posthumous fame for eloquence that finds no parallel in State history or tradition, save as that of the short-lived and lamented Menefee may rival it.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE BARDSTOWN PLEIADES.

C

HARACTER is largely formed and molded by the books that

are studied and the sentiments imbibed therefrom. Books open the door of thought, and lead the mind out by still waters, and cause it to lie down in green pastures. One's associates are open books, from which are gathered the best wisdom and most useful knowledge for all the practical affairs of life. If a just estimate can be formed of one's character by a glance at the books he has faithfully studied, still more accurately can he be measured by an understanding of those intellectual forces about him, after which his mind, in many respects, has been insensibly fashioned, and in contact with which his own powers have been developed and strengthened.

Not only did Grundy, Rowan, Duval, Hayes, Chapeze, Wickliffe, and Hardin constitute an intellectual galaxy of rare splendor-for they were all stars-but each unconsciously shed light on the other. There is a pollen of genius that floats abroad and fructifies its kind. Like begets like.

I. FELIX GRUNDY.

In a preceding chapter, the career of Judge Grundy was briefly traced to the period at which Mr. Hardin entered his office as a student. It now remains to take it up at that point and follow it to its close.

December 10, 1806, he was appointed, by Governor Greenup, judge of the Court of Appeals of Kentucky, and, in the spring following, made chief-justice of that court. His service on the bench continued but a short period. He delivered his last opinion December 17, 1807.

About that period, the son of a prominent citizen and an old personal friend was arrested, at Nashville, on a criminal charge. Judge Grundy was engaged to defend the youth, which he did successfully. His talents made a most favorable impression on the Tennesseans, and, in turn, he was so won by their kindness and attention, and the

FAC-SIMILE OF AUTOGRAPHS OF THE BARDSTOWN PLEIADES.

Be Hardin

John Rowen

John Hayes

Benj Chapese

Felix Grundy

Wickliffe

prospect of professional advantages, that he resigned his judgeship and removed to Nashville. He engaged in the practice of law, and immediately took the highest rank at the bar.

He was twice elected Representative in Congress, serving from 1811 to 1815. For several years he was a member of the Tennessee Legislature. In 1827 he was again a candidate for Congress, John Bell being his opponent. The contest created an immense excitement, resulting, however, in Bell's election by less than three hundred votes. General Jackson voted with an open ticket for Grundy.

He, however, never 1840.

He was elected United States Senator in 1829, to succeed John H. Eaton. In 1833 he was re-elected for a full term, and served until 1839. In the latter year he resigned to enter the cabinet of President Van Buren as attorney general. That position he resigned in 1840, and was again elected United States Senator. took his seat, dying at Nashville, December 12, Judge Grundy was a great and good man. intellectually to be the foremost in the country, and was at all times and under all circumstances an honest and fearless advocate of the right. In Archbishop Spaulding's "Sketches of Kentucky," the following incident is related of Grundy's service in the constitutional convention of 1799, which is decidedly illustrative:

He was pronounced

"Robert Abell was the only Catholic in that body. It had been agreed that each member of the convention should be at liberty to present such clauses as he thought worthy of insertion in the organic law they had met to perfect, and that, after debate on the clauses proffered, those should be accepted which would be found carried by a vote of a majority of the delegates. Robert Abell's room-mates were Felix Grundy and a lesser legal light who had abandoned the Presbyterian pulpit for the forum of the courts of civil law. The last-named party one day called the attention of his companions to a provision it was his desire to have embodied in the Constitution. The provision ran about as follows: It is further provided that no Papist or Roman Catholic shall hold office of profit or trust in the Commonwealth.' Seizing his pen Felix Grundy immediately indited the following: It is also provided that no broken-down Presbyterian preacher shall be eligible to any office in this Commonwealth.' Having read the clause, he assured the quondam minister that he would lay it before the convention and advocate its adoption the moment the provision he had shown them should be presented to that body."*

It is needless to say that the matter ended at that point.

The reader will find the decisions of Judge Grundy while on the Appellate bench in Kentucky published in the single volume of

Catholicity in Kentucky, by Hon. B. J. Webb, page 104.

Hardin's reports. His congressional speeches, so far as reported, are preserved in the "Annals of Congress" and Gales and Seaton's "Congressional Debates." Mr. Parton classes him among the most intimate friends and decided partisans of General Jackson.*

The following is from the pen of a distinguished gentleman, who knew Judge Grundy personally and intimately and was his friend, one who yet survives to link that distant generation with the present:

"I knew Mr. Grundy well. After the adjournment of Congress in 1840 he and I left Washington in a stage coach and passed through Abingdon, Va. We had a list of appointments to make Democratic speeches from the first county in east Tennessee down to Nashville. He called me his exhorter. I greatly loved him. He was one of the most eloquent speakers I ever heard. If I were called upon to specify the two most eloquent speeches I have heard in my day, I should say one was made by Felix Grundy in the Democratic Baltimore convention in 1840, and the other made by Henry Clay in the Senate of the United States, the same year, on President Tyler's veto of the bill to establish a United States bank.Ӡ

Prentice, in his life of Clay, speaks of Grundy as an influential politician as early as 1803. In describing a debate between Grundy and Clay, occurring in 1804, on the question of repealing the "Lexington Insurance Office," Prentice thus writes:

"The only heroes in opposition were Clay and Grundy, both good speakers and youthful politicians; and the display of talent was so brilliant. during the two days of the discussion that the hall was thronged with spectators, many of whom could obtain no seats, and the members of the Senate were in almost constant attendance at the House. It was the one great debate of the session. All acknowledged that Grundy had talents, and that he managed the debate with extreme adroitness; but no one pretended that he was equal to his opponent either in elocution, political information, logical skill, or extent of mental resources. After finding himself compelled to desist from offensive warfare, he tried every expedient to secure a safe escape; but his eagle foe pursued him closely in all his movements—his sweeps toward earth and his flights toward Heaven-and at last grappled with him and held him fast."

Notwithstanding his discomfiture (and the account of the partial Prentice must be taken cum grano salis), Judge Grundy had the solacing triumph of carrying his measure through the House.

His removal to another State lessened, but did not obliterate, the rivalry between these gifted sons of Kentucky. They were

Life of Jackson, by James Parton, Vol. III., page 274.

†Hon. Harvey M. Watterson.

Life of Clay, by George D. Prentice, page 27.